Available files

This page provides background information about the input-output tables released in April 2016. We explain how they differ from earlier tables and point out data quality information you should note before using these tables.

What are input-output tables?

Input-output tables are a powerful analytical tool for describing the structure of New Zealand’s economy. They show the relationships between industries, the goods and services they produce, and who uses them. Input-output tables have many uses, including:

estimating the effect changes in government policy have on key economic variables

examining the impact of changes in producer prices or wages on the consumers price index

exploring the reliance of industries on imports, and estimating their contribution to exports.

Input-output tables for year ended March 2013

Of our suite of macroeconomic outputs, input-output tables contain the most detailed data about the production and expenditure measures of gross domestic product. In this release for the year ended March 2013, data is broken down into 106 industries and 201 product groups.

This release includes nine tables. The first two tables, called supply and use tables, are compiled annually as part of supply-use balancing. This process reconciles the production and expenditure measures of gross domestic product by balancing the flows of goods and services within the economy.

The third table is the imports table. This table shows the detailed allocation of goods and services imports to use categories. See the section Data quality points to note for more information on this table. The remaining six tables are analytical tables derived from the first three tables.

Please see the explanatory notes in Using national accounts input-output tables, in the 'Available files' section. The notes include worked examples of how the tables can be used.

We want to hear your feedback

The previous set of input-output tables was published in 2012 for the year ended March 2007. We aim to continue producing input-output tables every five years. We would like your feedback on how we could improve the tables. We’d like to know:

how you plan to use the tables and what we could do to make them more useful

what changes you’d like to see to the content and presentation of the tables

if the examples and background information provided are useful

if you’d like to join the input-output tables user group.

You can provide feedback by emailing national.accounts@stats.govt.nz. We’re also happy to meet with you to receive feedback, or to provide explanations and advice on data in the tables.

We will take feedback into consideration to help focus the longer-term improvements to the input output tables.

How these tables differ from previous tables

There are some conceptual differences between the input-output tables for the years ended March 2007 and 2013. The former are based on the 1993 version of the international System of National Accounts (SNA). The latter are based on the updated 2008 version of the SNA, which better reflects the modern economy. Earlier publications of input-output tables are not revised to incorporate conceptual changes or data revisions.

One of the key SNA changes is the capitalisation of research and development expenditure.

The treatment for financial intermediation services indirectly measured (FISIM) is now fully aligned with the annual national accounts in the input-output tables for the year ended 2013. In the input-output tables for the year ended 2007 and prior, the financial service charge was allocated to use categories based on interest flows. The new measurement of FISIM was introduced in the annual national accounts release in November 2012.

The input-output tables for the years ended March 2007 and 2013 use largely the same industry and product group classifications. Earlier publications like Supply and use tables – year ended March 2003 and Inter-industry study 1996 used earlier versions of the current industry and product classifications. In the input-output tables spreadsheet we have included overviews of the industry and product groupings used in this release. For confidentiality reasons we have combined a few product groups in the new tables compared with the 2007 release (beer, soft drinks, and fruit juices; and gambling services).

Data quality points to note

This section contains some information on data quality for these tables:

Consistency between periodical input-output tables and annual national accounts

The latest input-output tables are generally consistent with other published annual national accounts data. The 2013 Annual Enterprise Survey is a main data source for the current tables, but many other data sources are used to compile the accounts.

We do not revise any published input-output tables when updated data or methods are introduced in future annual national accounts releases.

Valuation differs between the annual national accounts publication and the input-output tables. In the annual National Accounts (Industry Benchmarks) information releases the detailed industry output and value-added data is valued at producers’ prices. For the input-output tables we derive a valuation at basic prices. This means, for example, that industry value-added measures differ between the two releases. The differences relate generally to taxes on products, which are separated out in the basic price valuation.

Rolling data collection for industry sales and purchases by product

We generally source product detail for sales and purchases by industries from the Commodity Data Collection (CDC). This is a rolling data collection to update the product breakdowns for sales and purchases of industries in national accounts, and to update the lower-level weights for the business price indexes.

We survey businesses in particular industries every 8 to 12 years, to reduce respondent burden and costs. For industries where we expect rapid change in input and output product proportions we conduct the surveys more frequently.

The rolling nature of the CDC implies that this source data for the annual supply and use balancing process originates from multiple years. You can find updates on which industries have been surveyed recently from the quarterly Price Index News, in the subsection ‘Reviewing the business price indexes’.

Allocation of imports to use categories

The imports table shows the detailed allocation of imports of goods and services to use categories. We directly allocated imports proportional to total use. We calculated the proportion of each product’s total use that could be attributed to imports, then multiplied it by the respective use of each industry or final user.

For example, if industry A and B use $40 million and $60 million of product C, which has total use of $100 million and imports of $20 million, then the import allocation of product C for industry A would be 20/100*40= $8 million, and $12 million for industry B.

A result of the direct allocation of imports to industries is that inter-industry transaction flows in the transactions table may not reflect the technological input structure of the industry. For future input-output tables we aim to refine the import allocation.

Fringe benefit values

In cases where goods and services have been provided to employees free of charge or at a markedly reduced cost, the goods and services (or fringe benefits) have been valued in output at the cost of production. A similar amount is included in compensation of employees and household final consumption expenditure. In the input-output tables we allocate the fringe benefit values to the specific relevant goods and services. The allocation of Fringe Benefit Tax values to individual commodities is based on 2001 data, which is the last time this level of detail was collected by Inland Revenue.

Secondary production

Inter-industry study 1996 included some adjustments for secondary production, which are not included in the latest input-output tables. These adjustments moved secondary output of certain products from some industries to the industries that would characteristically produce them. This can improve the analytical value of the resulting tables. One example was the production by ‘converters’ in the wholesale industry. Converters produce manufactured products by contracting their production to the manufacturing industry.

The updated industry classification used in the tables for the years ended March 2007 and 2013 has reduced the need for secondary production adjustments, as the converters described above are now included in the manufacturing industry. But there are still other – maybe less significant – examples of secondary production.

By not making any adjustments for secondary production, the latest input-output tables reflect a ‘money-flow’ approach. Secondary production adjustments would result in tables showing a ‘product-flow’ approach. There may be customer needs for both approaches. We decided to show the input-output tables on a ‘money-flow’ basis, as this currently seems to be the preferred approach.

To read the explanatory notes in Using national accounts input-output tables, download or print the PDF from 'Available files'. If you have a problem viewing the file, see opening files and PDFs.